La Princesse de Clèves
Precious second original edition of La Princesse de Clèves, one of the main French literary works of the 17th century.
4 volumes in 2 in-12° books: I/ (2) leaves, 211 pp., (3) blank leaves, (1) leaf, 214 pp., (1) blank leaf; II/ (1) leaf, 216 pp., 211 (misnumbered 213) pp., (5) pp.
Marbled calf, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and floral tools, decorated edges, mottled edges.
Contemporary binding.
154 x 87 mm.
Madame de la Fayette. The Princess of Cleves.
Paris, Claude Barbin, 1689.
Precious second original edition of The Princess of Cleves, one of the major French literary works of the 17th century.
Tchemerzine, III, 841; Catalogue Edouard Rahir, Vbis, 1425.
“Produced page for page and almost line for line from the first edition of 1678, this second original edition presents the same collation(Cat. Rochebilière, no. 721)” (Catalogue Edouard Rahir).
This true second original edition, printed in large type, follows the original except for the title ornament of volume III, here made up of the bouquet of flowers also appearing on the title page of volume IV.
The tremendous success met by the work from its first publication in 1678 among the literary circles of the time made its reprinting necessary.
Madame de Sévigné voiced her enthusiasm; Fontenelle read and reread the work four times; Boursault made it into a five-act tragedy…
This is the first book that corresponds to the modern concept of the novel; the author’s great merit being to have succeeded, in this analytic novel, in reconciling the romantic subtlety of the précieuse spirit with the sober and eternal truth of classicism.
“This two-hundred-page novel stands in sharp contrast with the fictions of Mademoiselle de Scudery, the characters are French and no longer Greek or Roman: the air they breathe is that of the French court, voluptuous and refined, in the final years of the reign of Henry II.
But above all, it is through the chronicle of a society of princes and princesses, the precise and nuanced—and how decent—study of passions that are revealed only by a silence or the pallor of a face.”
The confession scene aroused passions and controversy. “Nothing is better prepared than this confession: we are ready for it, we expect it; and it is chance that suddenly brings it about, the husband’s anxiety and insistent questions, the wife’s embarrassment and silence—and then the silence has lasted too long, she does not know how to end it and she yields to her impulse: ‘Well, sir,’ she replies, throwing herself at his knees, ‘I will make you a confession that no woman has ever made to her husband…’” (Marcel Arland).
Precious novel, both historical and analytical, “The Princess of Cleves” is considered the first of our modern novels by its depiction of true feelings and the ravages of passion.
“Novel of marriage, of heartbreak, of sacrifice, this little book (where we see an unhappy husband who is not ridiculous) remains a living work. It seems to me that Madame de la Fayette created in the novel the language of passion and even its modest or impure silences” (Marcel Arland).
Rare copy, with wide margins, in period binding.
